Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FENCE, n. [fens. See Fend.]

1. A wall, hedge, ditch, bank or line of posts and rails, or of boards or pickets, intended to confine beasts from straying, and to guard a field from being entered by cattle, or from other encroachments. A good farmer has good fences about his farm; an insufficient fence is evidence of bad management. Broken windows and poor fences are evidences of idleness or poverty or of both.
2. A guard; any thing to restrain entrance; that which defends from attack, approach or injury; security; defense. A fence betwixt us and the victor's wrath. Addison.
3. Fencing, or the art of fencing; defense. Shak.
4. Skill in fencing or defense. Ring-fence. A fence which encircles a whole estate.